Cardiff Philharmonic Orchestra, founded by conductor Michael Bell,
performed its inaugural concert at St David’s Cathedral, Cardiff on
June 19 1982 for what was meant to have been a one-off charity
concert. Thirty-five years and over 330 concerts later, CPO
continues to flourish and is widely recognised as one of Wales’
foremost non-professional orchestras with a reputation for a wide
ranging repertoire from film music and light classics to major
works usually considered outside the remit or capabilities of a
non-professional orchestra. A full list of past orchestral
repertoire is available HERE

Major works performed include Mahler's Symphonies 1,2,3,5,
& 6. The monumental Symphony No. 2 ‘Resurrection’ was performed
in June 2008 with an orchestra of 116, chorus of 250 including
singers from Brittany and Paris, and soloists Ros Evans (Soprano)
and Kate Woolveridge (Mezzo Soprano). Other works performed include
all four of Brahms’ symphonies; Saint-Saens' ‘Organ Symphony;
Richard Strauss’ An Alpine Symphony, Don Juan and the Festival
Prelude for Organ and Orchestra (soloist Jeffrey Howard): Elgar’s
Symphonies 1 & 2: Rachmaninov’s Symphonies 2 & 3;
Shostakovich’s Symphonies 5 & 7 ‘Leningrad’; Vaughan
Williams’s A London Symphony (in its rarely heard 1920
version) and Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring. In October 2017
CPO performed Stravinsky’s Petrushka to much acclaim.

CPO performed the Welsh premieres of Sir Arthur Bliss’s
ballet Checkmate and film score Things to Come. Works performed by
Welsh composers include music by Alun Hoddinott, William Mathias,
Grace Williams and Gareth Wood.

In October 2013 CPO performed the UK Premiere of The Ring Without
Words, music from Wagner’s epic Ring cycle compiled by Lorin
Maazel.

Overseas tours include a three-concert tour of Switzerland in 1996,
followed by a tour of France in 1998 that culminated in a concert
in Paris’ premier concert venue, the Salle Pleyel. After the
success of this tour, CPO was invited back to Paris to perform the
final concert of the British Millennium Festival in the historic
Eglise de la Madeleine (where Saint-Saëns and Faure were Directors
of Music, where Franz Liszt performed a recital, and where
Faure’s Requiem was first performed). In 2007 the
orchestra performed two concerts in Cardiff’s twin city,
Nantes.

In December 1983 Cardiff Philharmonic Orchestra became the first
non-professional orchestra to perform at St David’s Hall, Cardiff.
CPO currently performs an annual series of concerts at the hall, in
addition to performances in the Welsh Proms. Cardiff
Philharmonic Orchestra has performed the popular ‘Family Prom’
since 2000 alongside guest presenters including Brian
Blessed, Dave Benson Phillips, Aled Jones, Zoe Salmon, Barney
Harwood, Wynne Evans, Mike Doyle, and in 2017, Connie
Fisher.

In addition to St David’s Hall the orchestra has performed at
Swansea’s Brangwyn Hall, Neath’s Gwyn Hall, Brecon’s Theatr
Brycheiniog, and the Miners’ Institute Blackwood. CPO’s annual
visit to the 500 seater Follies Theatre in Folly Farm has
helped raise tens of thousands of pounds for a number of good
causes.

Soloists who have appeared with CPO include Sir Geraint Evans,
Sir Bryn Terfel, Charlotte Church, Bonnie Tyler, pianists Martin
Jones and Richard McMahon, Wynne Evans, cellists Paul Watkins and
Steffan Morris, and violinists Rakhi Singh and Benjamin
Baker. In October 2017 the orchestra was joined by pianist
Martin James Bartlett (BBC Young Musician 2014) for a performance
of Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 2 that was greeted with a
standing ovation from the audience at St David’s Hall

In 1994 Neil Kinnock joined CPO as the narrator for a
sellout performance of Jeff Wayne’s The War of the
Worlds.

In 2006 Welsh Composer Sir Karl Jenkins conducted CPO in a
performance of his hugely successful ‘The Armed Man’ in the
orchestra’s debut appearance at the Wales Millennium Centre. In
October 2016 CPO was joined by Welsh actor Michael Sheen, at
St David’s Hall, in the world premiere of Bernard Kane’s
Mr Dahl, as part of the city’s Roald Dahl’s centenary
celebrations.

In 1994 CPO introduced evenings of film music to its annual series
of concerts. A Night at the Movies has since been performed in
venues throughout South Wales and included countless Welsh
Premieres, ranging from Max Steiner’s score for King Kong (1933) to
John Williams’s score for Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) and
many, many more besides. A full list of CPO’s film music repertoire
is available HERE

Broadcasts include televised concerts from the Welsh Proms, Texaco
Young Musician of Wales and an ITV Wales documentary following the
orchestra’s tour in 1998. The orchestra has also been broadcast as
part of BBC Radio 3’s Listen-Up Festival in 2006 as well as more
recently in 2013.

Michael Bell has conducted almost all of CPO’s 330 concerts. Other
conductors with whom the orchestra has performed include
composer Sir Karl Jenkins, Gareth Jones and Tianyi Lu, recently
appointed Assistant Conductor of the Melbourne Symphony
Orchestra.

In January 2018 John Quirk will conduct CPO at St David’s Hall in
an evening of Classic Elvis.

CPO was led by Paul Lewis for 24 years until October 2006. Paul was
succeeded as leader by Claire Frankcom until June 2009 when Jill
Francis-Williams became leader of the orchestra.